Professor Birkhead professor of behavioural ecology at the University of Sheffield and his colleague Dr Ben Hatchwell run the

Professor Birkhead, professor of behavioural ecology at the University of Sheffield, and his colleague Dr Ben Hatchwell run the longest and most detailed survey of a guillemot colony, on the island of Skomer off Pembrokeshire, in south Wales.Guillemots have been counted on Skomer every year since 1961. That may be linked to oil spills, because guillemots are more vulnerable to oiling than other seabirds, and are always the major casualty in any oiling incident on northern European coasts.But in the past 25 years the bird’s population has risen from 650,000 to 1.9 million, making it the most common British seabird. Smaller fish and marine creatures which prey on cod eggs and larvae – and which were eaten by adult cod – are now believed to have increased and established a new dominance which has stabilised the Grand Banks cod population at a much lower level.Guillemots, cliff-dwelling chocolate-brown seabirds, began increasing in numbers on Britain’s coasts in 1980 after a 30-year decline. Their steadily increasing numbers may be caused by a decline in the marine environment, Professor Tim Birkhead says.
Overfishing of British waters could have caused a “regime shift” in fish stocks, and the sprats on which the guillemot lives may have become more plentiful, because the larger fish which preyed on them have themselves been heavily fished.In 1992, the huge cod fishery on Canada’s Grand Banks, off Newfoundland, collapsed from overfishing, and despite a halt to fishing, has never recovered. You don’t have to eat the chips that come with your sandwich and you can argue against the philosophy you don’t like. The remarkable breeding success of Britain’s most prolific seabird may be a sinister warning, rather than the sign of a healthy ecosystem, a world expert on the common guillemot believes.

The Queen would relinquish her present position, and the post of Governor General would become obsolete.Dr FRANK HANSFORD-MILLER Birchington-on-Sea, Kent IN BRIEF… Fatty solutions Sir: Non-fail obesity solution (Letters, 29 and 31 May):1. Bring back school playing fields and have sports of some kind every day.2 Throw every television out of every home.3. Impose a rule that every home has regulated sit-down meals and no eating in-between.JANET COGGIN EdinburghSir: As a leading expert in the matter, I take exception to Mary Neale’s slur on Wakefield’s cafe life (Letters; “Obese nation”, 29 May).Cafes offer chips with sandwiches so they can charge more. Similarly motorway cafes charge £2.50 for cafetieres, offering twice as much coffee as you want; stores charge £12 to “clean” a perfectly clean watch when you want a new battery worth £6. He is young, 20 in September, and his enthusiasm at the Rugby World Cup held in Australia and widely publicised shows he is the right type for Australia. It is called capitalism.One Wakefield cafe holds a monthly philosophy evening.

I imagine he would not take long to find a bride.Australia would then have her own head of state with Government House in Canberra as his royal palace. To solve this problem, I advocate that Her Majesty the Queen be requested to allow Prince Harry to become King of Australia.King Harry would start up Australia’s own royal dynasty. The present US administration has successfully appropriated this view and added the fear that the US is constantly under threat to justify its quasi-colonialist policies. Yes, this is a stereotypical view, but unfortunately one that has a great deal of foundation.

I wish I could claim that it is only an urban myth that I was asked (in Oklahoma) “do they speak English as well in England?”The problem lies in the endemic feeling that the US is omnipotent and has a god-given right to draw on whatever resources may be available outside the US to perpetuate its consumer-driven economy. Not so long ago the finger-crossing ministers were the vote winners who regarded Livingstone as an electoral liability. Now they hope to cite a Livingstone victory as proof that they are still in the game.New Labour’s nervy pioneers must be confused After all they have fought a war In Britain military conflicts are usually popular. In contrast Livingstone has openly introduced a charge on motorists in a land where taxes are supposed to be a vote loser and the car driver is king.